In this series we’ll take a fresh look at resources and how they are used. We’ll go beyond natural resources like air and water to look at how efficiency in raw materials can boost the bottom line and help the environment. We’ll also examine the circular economy and design for reuse — with an eye toward honoring those resources we do have.

While changes at home can’t solve the many environmental crises we face today, they can sure help. Through this series, we’ll explore how initiatives like curbside compost pick-up, rebates on compost bins, and efficient appliances can help families reduce their impact without breaking the bank.

Despite decades -- centuries even -- of global efforts, slavery can still be found not just on the high seas, but around the world and throughout various supply chains. Through this series on forced labor, sponsored by C&A Foundation, we’ll explore many different types of bonded and forced labor and highlight industries where this practice is alive and well today.

In this series we examine how companies should respond to national controversy like police violence and the BLM movement to best support employees and how can companies work to improve equality by increasing diversity in their ranks directly.

Compost is often considered a panacea for the United States’ tremendous food waste problem. Indeed, composting is a much better option than putting spoiled food in a garbage can destined for a landfill.

Shame on us, liberalistas. We let Texas beat us to the punch. Instead of getting behind Cape Wind (code name for the proposed offshore wind farm at Cape Cod), the Kennedy’s and many well-heeled NIMBY’s instead chose to challenge it, delaying the site’s eventual construction by over a decade. Cape Wind got regulatory approval finally, but the delay meant that Texas snuck in to become the first state in the U.S. to jump on the offshore wind bandwagon. It’s about time. Offshore wind has come to be known around the world as a steady, reliable, affordable, and clean source of electricity.

The new power station will be a 12 MW installation off the coast of Galveston, adding to Texas’s already substantial 10,000 MW of onshore wind capacity. BC Upham first reported on this achievement midway through 2010, citing that the state had hit its renewable portfolio goals 15 years ahead of schedule.

The lesson here, though, is that if we are to win as a nation and as a network of local economies that are self-sufficient, obstacles to sustainable development need to be removed. Texas cited its stable long term economy and business-friendly policies.

Sometimes these policies draw the ire of liberals because they favor industry, but this announcement shows that sometimes it works the other way. There is now egg on the face of all those upper crust do-gooders in New England.

———————————————————————– Scott Cooney is the author of Build a Green Small Business (McGraw-Hill), and covers green business strategy on GreenBusinessOwner.com.

Scott Cooney, Principal of GreenBusinessOwner.com and author of Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-Hill, November 2008), is also a serial ecopreneur who has started and grown several green businesses and consulted several other green startups. He co-founded the ReDirect Guide, a green business directory, in Salt Lake City, UT. He greened his home in Salt Lake City, including xeriscaping, an organic orchard, extra natural fiber insulation, a 1.8kW solar PV array, on-demand hot water, energy star appliances, and natural paints. He is a vegetarian, an avid cyclist, ultimate frisbee player, and surfer, and currently lives in the sunny Mission district of San Francisco. Scott is working on his second book, a look at microeconomics in the green sector.In June 2010, Scott launched GreenBusinessOwner.com, a sustainability consulting firm dedicated to providing solutions to common business problems by leveraging the power of the triple bottom line. Focused exclusively on small business, GBO's mission is to facilitate the creation and success of small, green businesses.